A wave of legislation in July is has provided the cryptocurrency market in the U.S. with same the regulatory clarity long afforded to traditional financial institutions, pushing cryptocurrency to new heights.
In response to the regulatory moves, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of over $123,000 in July, up from its previous $112,000 high in May. The bullish sentiment wasn’t confined to Bitcoin, however; Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also hit a 180-day high of $3670.
In what lawmakers and market participants have dubbed ‘Crypto Week’, the primary catalyst for this surge is a trio of cryptocurrency-friendly bills passed by the U.S. government and establishing a consistent and comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets.
Chief among these is the CLARITY Act, which aims to address the long-standing jurisdictional overlap between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bill establishes clear legal distinctions between ‘digital commodities’, which fall under the purview of the CFTC, and ‘digital assets’, which are regulated by the SEC as components of investment contracts.
Another piece of legislation signed into law in July is the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which establishes a regulatory framework governing the use of stablecoins in payment systems. The act requires that stablecoin issuers back every token with low-risk, highly liquid assets, such as cash or central bank deposits at a 1:1 ratio. The bill also establishes other protections, including anti-money laundering (ALM) controls, to mitigate the risk of the illegal use of stablecoins.
Finally, Congress also passed the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currency (CBDC) directly to consumers. This move highlights the US government’s preference for privately-issued, decentralized digital currencies over a state-controlled digital dollar. However, the bill is something of a moot point, as the Federal Reserve has never shown any interest in launching a CBDC, so it’s purely a proactive measure.
Unsurprisingly, the new regulations have resulted in a record-breaking influx of institutional capital into the cryptocurrency market, fundamentally changing its structure and ending years of regulatory ambiguity. However, not everyone is happy with the changes. While supporters herald a new era of financial innovation, skeptics claim it risks opening the floodgates to an unregulated market and a boom-and-bust economy, as exemplified by the Great Depression of the 1920s. However, there’s no doubt that, regardless of the long-term outlook, July 2025 is the month where crypto truly entered the mainstream in the US financial sector.